The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
UT Athletics to host seminar on gambling and sports featuring Michael Franzese
02.05.2007 | Texas Athletics
The University of Texas Athletics Dept.'s compliance office will host a seminar on gambling and sports featuring Michael Franzese this week on the UT campus. A frequent guest lecturer on college campuses who shares his frank and first-hand accounts, Franzese's session on Wednesday, Feb. 7 from 10-11 a.m. in the Carpenter-Winkel Centennial Room (9th floor of Bellmont Hall) is open to the public and media. The event is free.
A former capo in New York's Colombo organized crime family, Franzese is an NCAA-approved speaker who has shared his experiences with athletes, administrators coaches and staffs at the high school, collegiate and professional levels over the years. He has recently spoken to student-athletes at North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, N.C. State, Georgia, Alabama, Nebraska, Connecticut and Michigan State.
Franzese was alternately referred to by the media and members of law enforcement alike, as the New York Mob's "Long Island Don" and "The Prince of the Mafia." He was once the primary target of a massive, 14-agency government task force that "had one assignment -- to bring down the Mafia's youngest and most financially powerful new superstar, Michael Franzese." At the height of his mob activity, Franzese was one of the biggest money earners the mob had seen since Al Capone.
It all began when Franzese got an offer he couldn't refuse. One afternoon, while he was walking in the prison yard, a command dreaded by all inmates blared over the loudspeaker... "Michael Franzese, report to the Warden's office." His heart sank when he entered the office and was met by two FBI agents dispatched from headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The agents were there to recruit Franzese to participate in a program designed to educate professional athletes about the dangers of gambling. Franzese knew the world of gambling and sports -- he knew it from first hand knowledge from the side of the Mafia. He recorded a video taped message that would be presented to professional and collegiate athletes, warning them about the danger of gambling, and the impact it can ultimately have on their career.
Since that time, Franzese has been a featured guest at the NBA and MLB rookie camps, featured on ESPN, Fox Sports and HBO Real Sports. He was recently a guest on the Jim Rome show (radio and TV), as well as NPR's "All Things Considered," Armed Forces Radio, CNN and Fox News.
Franzese is frequently a guest lecturer at several NCAA colleges and he addressed a gathering of NCAA college representatives for the "Champs Life Skills Program" in February 2003. He followed that with an address at the American Football Coaches Association conference in Orlando.
The compliance office will also host two sessions with Franzese and UT's student-athletes on Tuesday, Feb. 6. That session is closed to the public and media.
For more information on Franzese, go to